Maddermadcat on 6/8/2010 at 03:54
Oh man! I was about to post those. Beat me to it. :)
I love (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adh99_Q735w) Theme From Battery as well. Amon Tobin is great at what he does.
Quote Posted by Sulphur
This leetle game called Mechwarrior 2. Redbook audio when almost everything else was stuck with MIDI or some compromise or the other. Awesomeness.
Mechwarrior 4 also had very good music -- intense orchestral bits, wailing guitars. Over-dramatic? Yes. Perfect for a game about rampaging, impractical walking tanks? (
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3o01xGZJt0)
Yes!Jason Moyer on 6/8/2010 at 04:48
Favorite soundtracks from relatively recent games (obviously stuff like Moon Patrol or the original Zelda music is fab):
Thief Deadly Shadows (first two soundtracks are great too, but I think Eric really outdid himself with TDS)
No One Lives Forever
Bioshock (the score)
Quake
Most other games seem to be some combination of John Williams, Holst, or Aphex Twin plagiarism. Or, alternately, they don't even try and just throw together some crappy metal or trance. Also, I seem to remember Mirror's Edge having a great soundtrack, but I don't seem to have a copy outside of the game other than the shitty remix CD of the eh theme song.
Renzatic on 6/8/2010 at 05:10
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcE1mIBVkm0&feature=related) The Opera Scene in Not English. Being a big FFVI fan, I'm surprised you haven't given the Grand Finale album a listen. It's about the best orchestral arrangement of any game soundtrack you'll ever hear (though some do miss the mark a bit). Just listen to the Opera, the Phantom Forest track, and Terra's theme before you listen to the rest.
Sulphur on 6/8/2010 at 06:51
I have, actually. I just, er, completely forgot. :D
I absolutely adore the orchestral versions of the main theme and Phantom Forest and Aria di Mezzo Carattere, and yes, they did drop the ball in rearranging the other tracks.
There's also a full-on version of the opera scene in an album called Game Concert #4, which I can't seem to find on Youtube. It's almost exactly the same as Aria di Mezzo Carattere on Grand Finale, but with the rest of the opera in tow as well. Shame there's no link around.
Muzman on 6/8/2010 at 07:39
I'll just do a couple of recent faves.
Mirror's Edge does indeed have a great soundtrack, by a bloke known as Solar Fields. Anything with techno and running is going to evoke
Run Lola Run to some extent, but it changes up a surprising amount and its really the ambient stuff that sets it apart. It's seems kinda obvious to say a bright and shiny, high tech soundtrack fits this game but the marriage is more precise than we're likely to give it credit. I reckon even people who don't like spacey techno or ambient would find it really sets the tone better than most things you hear.
(of course, most of the album mixes tilt towards the dance/action stuff)
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08vchYv_aOA) Jacknife
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMJT93F6ecM) Pirandello Kruger
I even think the (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huSV0Q2lW5A) re-production of the, somewhat twee, theme song improves it immensly.
And of course Stalker. Great dark ambient stuff by some guy called Mooze. I mean surprisingly great. It's fairly easy to pull out these sorts of noises and not hit anything like the same level of quality, and many games have.
I can't remember what tune goes with what level anymore, but you can get the whole thing (
http://www.stalker-game.com/en/?page=soundtrack) here.
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvwj0VUqsAU) Yantar
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g13cWiGePAc) S.A.D (from the power station assault)
